Now and Forever

Shirley Temple was the biggest child star of the 1930s. With her blonde curls, her sweet smile, and her ability to dance, Shirley won the hearts of the American audience in the middle of the Great Depression. The six-year-old (the studio and her parents told her she was five) was receiving 400-500 fan letters a day by July 1934, when it was announced that she would star opposite Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in Now and Forever (1934). At the time, one journalist mused, "A star, a drawing card, and a great 'name' at five. Shirley can't stop to wonder where she will be twelve or fifteen years from now." Although Paramount produced Now and Forever, they were certainly kicking themselves over a lost opportunity. Only a year before, Temple had appeared in a Western called The Last Round Up (1933) but the studio were not impressed enough to sign her to a contract. Fox grabbed her and put her into Stand Up and Cheer! (1934) which made her an instant star. While Fox was trying to find suitable vehicles for her, Temple went back to Paramount for a two-picture deal, which produced Little Miss Marker (1934) and Now and Forever. Filmed on the Paramount lot and on location in the mountain resorts of Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead, about two hours from Los Angeles, Now and Forever was directed by Henry Hathaway from a script by Vincent Lawrence and Sylvia Thalberg, based on the story Honor Bright by Melville Baker and Jack Kirkland. Honor Bright was the original title for Now and Forever, and the plot was clichéd even by 1934; the hardened crook reformed by the love of a child. After the death of his wife, con man Jerry Day (Cooper) is left with a small daughter, Penny (Temple). Knowing he can't take care of her, he leaves her in the care of relatives. Jerry travels the world, running scam after scam until he finds himself short of money. He considers an offer of $75,000 in exchange for giving up custody of his daughter, but when he and his girlfriend Toni (Lombard) meet Penny, they can't bring themselves to part with her. Penny goes to live with Jerry and Toni, and gets caught up in one of Jerry's cons and realizes her father is a crook. The film's script had several possible endings; including having Jerry shot and dying in Toni's arms and Jerry giving up Penny and driving his car off a cliff. Paramount went with a happy ending after preview audiences complained. They also didn't like having Temple in films about the seamier side of life. Fox took note, and when Shirley returned to their studio, she was put into more bucolic settings. Now and Forever opened on October 12, 1934 in New York and the audience fell in love with Shirley Temple all over again. The critics loved her too. Wrote the Lewiston Evening Journal: "[Temple is a] fascinating little actress [who] has the most delightful and lovable character yet allotted to her with full scope for all her witchery, her ever-changing expressions and impulses and a precocity expressed in such charming ways that it never detracts from the charm of simplicity and innocence that is childhood's heritage." Andre Sennwald of The New York Times called it a "sentimental melodrama" in which an "otherwise lovable child has an annoying regard both for the truth and for the sanctity of other people's valuables. [...] The enormous charm of Shirley Temple is potent enough to make almost any character do almost anything. The little girl has lost none of her obvious delight in her work during her rise to fame. In Now and Forever she is, if possible, even more devastating in her unspoiled freshness of manner than she has been in the past." While Lombard reportedly spoke highly of Temple, she recognized her talent and scene-stealing ability. When there was talk of remaking Now and Forever in 1949, gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote, "I remember Carole telling me, 'I'll never make another movie with a child. You can't see Cooper or me when Shirley is on the screen.'" SOURCES: Dubas, Rita Shirley Temple: A Pictorial History of the World's Greatest Child Star Edwards, Alanson "The Hollywood Roundup," The Sunday Morning Star 8 Jul 34 Hatch, Kristen Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood "Now and Forever at Carolina Theater" Herald-Journal 23 Sep 34 "Shirley Temple's Best Role in Now and Forever" Lewiston Evening Journal 19 Sep 34 "Coming Film Attractions" The Lewiston Daily Sun 16 Jul 34 Parsons, Louella "Mary Jane Inherits Shirley Temple Roles," The Deseret News 4 Feb 49 "Film Experts Often Miss Guess in Choosing Stars" The Pittsburgh Press 2 Oct 34 Sennwald, Andre "The Paramount Presents Little Miss Temple in 'Now and Forever'" The New York Times 13 Oct 34 Smith, Emily The Gary Cooper Handbook - Everything You Need to Know About Gary Cooper By Lorraine LoBianco